While I was driving down East Burnside the other day, I noticed that Cal’s Pharmacy was papered over with indications that something called The Corner Shop was opening in its place. The Corner Shop will be a little corner store/convenience store. Here is what we know.
The Corner Shop Building Was Formerly Cal’s Pharmacy
As Willamette Week wrote in 2019, Cal’s Pharmacy “is not another pot shop” with Thrasher Magazine adding that it is “a certified Portland institution.”
The building on East Burnside and 14th was an actual pharmacy in the 1930s (see below) However, at another pharmacy at East Burnside and 28th, Aaron Lee, the son of the pharmacist, and his older brother started a skateboard shop inside the pharmacy. “Originally we just wanted to get some cheap skateboards,” he wrote. “The name was set so we called it Cal’s Pharmacy Skateboards.”
Over the years, it grew and took over all the floor space there at 28th and Burnside. It then moved down to 25th Avenue and then to 16th as it continued to grow…